A private company's shares are not publicly traded. Therefore, a public company's shares are delisted from the exchanges and removed from investors' brokerage accounts once it goes private. Private companies typically do not publish quarterly and annual reports, and management generally does not hold quarterly conference calls discussing their business operations. A delisted company's stock market symbol is removed from the exchanges.

Comment: It will be interesting to see what happens. Note stock price by hour today. The spike when the buy-out rumor hit:

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Talks between Dell and private-equity firms have been going on for the last two to three months, the people said. One of these people described the talks as "serious" and said that they heated up late last year and that any possible deal likely would emerge within six weeks.

A Dell spokesman declined to comment. Bloomberg News earlier reported that Dell was in buyout talks.

The Round Rock, Texas, personal computer maker has struggled in recent years amid declining prices and demand for PCs. It has tried recently to add products for businesses such as software and networking gear—a strategy largely fueled by acquisitions—but the resulting gains haven't offset other declines.

Dell's stock price was down more than 30% over the last year before gaining 13% on news of the buyout talks. Shares closed at $12.29 on 4 p.m. trading on the Nasdaq stock exchange.

Private-equity firms have approached Dell off and on for several years, the people familiar with the matter said. But things heated up recently because Dell's "valuation is off the charts low,'' the industry executive said.

"The market value of Dell has come down so much that a buyout has become something that is plausible. They have about $5 billion in net cash and also free cash flow generation that could sustain payments on debt from a leveraged buyout," said S&P Capital IQ analyst Angelo Zino."However, we think it's unlikely, given the sheer size of Dell and where the stock is currently trading at."A buyout of the $19 billion company would become one of the largest deals since the global recession.

Dell started the day with a market capitalization of $18.9 billion and ended at $21.4 billion.

Add in a customary, gratuity-like 20% premium and the deal could approach $23 billion, which would put it on track to be among the five biggest buyouts of all time, according to Dealogic.

According to Dealogic there hasn’t been a $20 billion buyout, excluding debt, since the Blackstone-led deal to acquire Hilton Hotels for $20.2 billion, a deal that closed in October 2007, near the height of the buyout boom.

In total there have been seven buyouts in history that eclipsed $20 billion excluding the target’s debt, according to Dealogic, six of which came across between 2006 and 2007. (The first $20 billion-plus buyout was the famed KKR buyout of RJR Nabisco in 1988, the central story of best-selling book “Barbarians at the Gate.”)

In terms of tech buyouts, there has only been one deal above the $20-billion threshold: KKR’s purchase of First Data Corp. was valued at $26.4 billion in 2007.

While Dell likely wouldn’t get that high, it would supplant Freescale Semiconductor, the current No. 2 with a $17.6 billion price tag in 2006.

Another point of comparison: In all of 2012 private equity and financial sponsors spent only $19.9 billion in technology sector globally, according to Dealogic. In the past five years, a Dell buyout alone would have surpassed the total PE spending in technology every year, except for 2011 when there was $35.8 billion.

Dell's fortunes are largely tied to the personal computer, which has been losing favor in recent years. But even in the shrinking PC market, Dell has lost share to Hewlett-Packard (HPQ) and China's Lenovo. Market leader HP has a 16 percent share, followed by Lenovo at 15.7 percent, with Dell at a distant third with about 10.6 percent.

Sanford Bernstein analyst Toni Sacconaghi told CNBC on Monday that splitting the company in two - a PC unit and an enterprise business - seems more feasible than an outright sale. Sacconaghi noted that personal computers account for 70 percent of Dell's revenues and about 60 percent of its profits

Taking Dell private would eliminate the company's need to resort to financial machinations to create the illusion of growth. Dell's EPS improvements mask stagnant revenues. From fiscal 2009 to the end of fiscal 2012, company revenue climbed from $60.8 billion to $62.8 billion. Of such non-growth are P/E multiples under 10 born.

Hugh Johnson the eponymous CIO of Hugh Johnson Advisors says Dell and other PC-linked companies would be well served by getting out of the spotlight. "They need to do what anybody would do under these conditions, which is get out of the scrutiny of the public," he says in the attached clip.

Private companies don't have satisfy Wall Street's lust for growth. In the name of supporting shares and giving the illusion of earnings growth, Dell spent $2.7 billion buying its own shares in 2012. The pointless buyback is just one of the Sysphean games played by all public companies that go away the second a takeover is complete.

Without having to placate shareholders Dell can hum along, spit out cash, and look for opportunities too radical to pursue under a public model. In the meantime its core business, a classic diminishing asset in the form of a large market share in a shrinking business, will slowly erode.

"As an overall strategy it's a really good idea" says Johnson. Judging by the price action of the stock since the rumor hit the wires, Dell shareholders would have to agree. The private route may not be sexy, but it just may be the best option for Dell.

Excerpt: (Comment ... I am not overthinking my sale ... I turned around and bought 130 shares of PEY):

While a buyout deal would most likely be good for shareholders, it is hard to understand why any private equity firm would want to touch a company that is battling to stay relevant in a struggling industry. Many times these private equity managers see certain companies, both public and private, as bargain deals. They believe they can use their capital to buy a company and restructure it to a point where it may not be maximizing as much of a profit currently. Unfortunately strategies to get lean often involve cutting jobs and dealing a blow to employee morale. This certainly doesn’t equate to achieving the best shareholder values over time. Many times it just comes down to money burning a hole in these big investors’ pockets; they’ll invest in about anything with hopes of hitting a huge score. Sometimes this works, but plenty of times it doesn’t. Everyday retail investors should not take their cue from these private equity investing strategies. It is better to put money in intelligent investments, not bargain ones.

Silver Lake Partners was in discussions Tuesday with Dell for a buyout at around $13 to $14 a share, according to a person familiar with the matter. The buyout group would include the private-equity firm, an investor such as a pension or sovereign wealth fund, and Mr. Dell, this person said.

"If Dell does go private, it will probably go out around $15. I think that's the most that the bankers and Michael Dell will pay," he said. "But if there is no deal than I'd presume that the stock will work its way back down to $10 because there isn't enough earnings momentum to keep it up here," Cramer added.

Reports say Mr. Dell is playing a role in the transaction and contributing his stake to the deal. The involvement will eventually get shareholders wondering where his allegiances lie. Is he a buyer, a seller, or somewhere in between?

A Dell representative declined to comment.

Management buyouts are always fraught, precisely for this reason. Prodded by court rulings, boards have taken steps to minimize the most flagrant problems. Should a deal be announced, be prepared for a barrage of reminders about "independent committees," "go shops" and the like.

But these steps are ultimately cosmetic. No one will say it this way, but it's the way deals happen: The conflict is the opportunity.

For example, without Mr. Dell's stake, it would be nearly impossible to assemble the $22 billion to $25 billion needed to buy the company. It's also unlikely that another buyout shop or industry player would make a competing bid without Mr. Dell's consent.

In these situations, a powerful executive like Mr. Dell can effectively act as his own poison pill, guarding against outcomes he doesn't like.

Shareholders, alas, have only the final protection of their votes.

And this has a flaw, as Delaware's leading business judge, Leo E. Strine Jr., explained about a similar transaction from 2012: "The negotiation process and deal dance present ample opportunities for insiders to forge deals that, while 'good' for stockholders, are not 'as good' as they could have been, and then to put the stockholders to a Hobson's choice," he wrote.

Dell Inc. on Monday was close to finishing a $23 billion deal to take itself private at between $13.50 and $13.75 a share, said people familiar with the matter, in a buyout that marks an unofficial end to the era when a handful of young entrepreneurs made PCs the dominant computing device.